Hearing Aids & the 17 month old

October 23, 2003

My daughter is 17 months old & has had 3 audiograms. After rounds of

antibiotics (to clear ear infections) & tubes put in her ears (to

relieve fluid), it appears that she has a moderate / severe loss

(around 60Db)bilateral. It is considered conductive + sensorineural,

but they have not pinpointed a cause. She was adopted at 10 months

old & appeared then to already have a hearing loss.

Anyways, her audiograms have been done at the county level & next

week we will visit an audiologist who can fit her for hearing aids.

At her age, she has no language.

Do you have any recommendations on what I should look for? How do I

know if what we put on her are the best for her? Do we have to just

wait & see? Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. We seem to have a

good ST (through EI) & her Ped is also pretty good, although not

EXTREMELY knowledgeable about types of hearing aids, ect. I know

that he has discussed her case with the audiologist already.

Any tips from those of you who have been down this road with a child

who doesn't have any language yet would be appreciated.

Regards,

Debby

October 27, 2003

Debby,

You definitely want to work with an audiologist who is experienced with

working with children and preferably dispenses several types of aids.

Often, the audiology dept in a children's hospital will have suggestions or

you can contact school systems to see if they work with an educational

audiologist, who will surely have some ideas. Fitting children is so

different than adults, it's really preferable to have someone with that kind

of experience. You will see this audi all the time, so it also helps that

all of you have a good relationship with him/her, especially the child. We

had our choice of several audis in the practice we visit, and went with the

woman who Hadley responded best to.

As far as brands, your most important goal is to get sound to your child's

brain. While a digital aid will probably be the way to go (there are so

many options for kids now), you'll want to choose an aid that fits the best

on your child's ear, has a childproof battery door and preferably a remote

control for you (it's nice to turn off the controls on the aids so little

hands can't fool with them!). Digital aids come with lots of bells and

whistles that are useful down the road, but unless you want to use an FM

right away, you probably don't want to worry too much about them. It's

important to know the different functionalities of the aids, but at this

early age, you probably won't fool around too much with certain features.

We go into each purchase with the idea they will last 3 years, mainly

because technology is changing so quickly and, at her age (2), her needs 3

or 5 years down the road will be very different.

Whatever technology you choose, it's really going to be the therapy and time

you put into this that makes the real difference. As a consumer, you want

to make the best decision given the financial implications of hearing aids,

but as a parent you want to put the same time and energy into choosing the

team that will provide services to your family. Sue Schwartz's " Choices in

Deafness " is a great resource for the basics on the various approaches and

is a good starting point. From there, you can utilize your state's

resources to determine what qualified therapists are available in your area

to provide services (EI can be great, but depending on the training of your

speech therapist, their knowledge and experience with hearing impaired kids

may be limited).

Good luck with it! Although we're still early on in the process (Hadley

only turned 2 last month), the initial months following the diganosis when

we determined what to do with our daughter were the hardest. Once we made

our decision (AVT for us), it was smoother sailing.

Kerry in Boston

Message: 7

Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 23:45:13 -0000

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